VacationSelector
The skyline and the Rocky Mountains over City Park and Ferril Lake, Denver
DenverThe skyline and the Rocky Mountains over City Park and Ferril Lake
The fountain on Plaza Mayor, Lima
LimaThe fountain on Plaza Mayor

Photos: Denver by Zenhaus, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Lima by James C., CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Denver or Lima?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Denver for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Denver’s own page.

Choose Lima for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Lima’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Denver 5, Lima 42: Lima leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Denver 54, Lima 88: Lima leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Denver 44, Lima 66: Lima leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Denver 47, Lima 62: Lima leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Denver 84, Lima 45: Denver leads by 39 points.
Day trips. Denver 57, Lima 34: Denver leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Denver 67, Lima 42: Denver leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Denver 40, Lima 35: Denver leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Denver 44, Lima 52: Lima leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Denver 36, Lima 70: Lima leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Denver 66, Lima 53: Denver leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Denver 40, Lima 25: Denver leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Denver and Lima.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Denver
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and families with your weighting.

Lima
51match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Denver in July

32 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
55 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Lima in July

19 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
1 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0204060JFMAMJJASOND
DenverLima

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Denver: 1991-2020 normals, Denver / Stapleton International, Co. (11.2 km from centre). Lima: 1991-2020 normals, Lima-Callao / Aerop. Internacional Jorgechavez (10.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDenverLima
Official language-Spanish, Aymara, Quechua
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Sol (PEN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911111 or 911
Elevation1,609 m154 m
Main airportDenver International Airport (DEN)30 km from centre231 non-stop destinationsJorge Chávez International Airport (LIM)9 km from centre61 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureDenverLima
City population715,5229,943,800
People per km²1,7833,721
Museums within 10 km2647
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C-2 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Denver or Lima somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.